San Benito County supervisors voted Tuesday to support Hollister
in its attempt to get a state-imposed deadline of Oct. 15 to build
a new sewage treatment plant extended until 2007.
Hollister – San Benito County supervisors voted Tuesday to support Hollister in its attempt to get a state-imposed deadline of Oct. 15 to build a new sewage treatment plant extended until 2007.
In 2002 the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Board imposed the deadline on the city following a spill of 15 million gallons of treated sewage into the San Benito River. The agency also hit the city with a building moratorium pending construction of the new plant.
“We certainly would appreciate your support,” Hollister City Manager Clint Quilter said to the board shortly before it voted. Quilter has said that, barring a hang-up during the environmental analysis phase of the project, he expects the city to construct a new sewage plant by late 2007.
The board will send a letter to the RWQCB expressing its support for Hollister’s extension request.
“I believe that the city is working very hard to overcome the problems of the past,” said Supervisor Pat Loe, who sits on the Governance Committee for the Hollister Urban Area Water and Wastewater Plan.
Formed in 2004 for the purpose of creating a water plan for the city, the governance committee consists of elected officials from Hollister, San Benito County and the San Benito County Water District. Last month, the governance committee created a work plan that laid out key milestones and deadlines that will lead to the construction of a new sewage plant and a long-term water management plan for the city.
Quilter and city officials are optimistic that the RWQCB will grant the extension. Quilter will request the action at a meeting in San Luis Obispo next month.
According to Quilter, plans for a new sewage plant are 90 percent complete, but figuring out what to do with the wastewater once it’s treated has been difficult. Currently, treated wastewater is percolated into the ground, but once the new plant is built there will be too much water to continue doing that.
Supervisor Anthony Botelho said Tuesday that he was in support of extending the deadline, but he also emphasized the importance of getting the new sewer plant built by 2007.
“This is crippling, not only Hollister, but housing for the entire county,” he said. “I support extending this deadline … but if we fail again, there has to be some consequences. It’s incomprehensible that it gets extended beyond 2007.”
Luke Roney covers politics and the environment for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or at
lr****@fr***********.com
